A total of 701 foreigners stranded in the Maldives were able to fly home this weekend.

Three repatriation flights were scheduled for Friday and Saturday; NEOS Airlines (NO213) and Garuda Indonesia Airlines (GA9830) on Friday and a Philippines Airlines (PR8709) on Saturday.

Maldives Immigration said that 701 foreigners were granted clearance to fly via these three flights to Italy, Indonesia and Philippines.

It added that most of them were expatriate workers.

Maldives closed its borders on March 27, as part of its efforts to control the spread of Covid-19 in the archipelago nation.

There have been a few repatriation flights since, including a Qatar Airways flight on April 21. Further, the country’s national airline operated chartered flights to South Africa and Mauritius earlier this month while a flight carrying care packages to Maldivians in Thailand airlifted 55 Thai nationals on April 16.